


Vignettes on the Life of Shane Reynard

by Chellendora



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Adventure, F/M, Family, Ficlets, Funny, Gen, Romance, friends - Freeform, original - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-29
Updated: 2010-11-29
Packaged: 2017-12-31 22:13:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellendora/pseuds/Chellendora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shane Reynard is currently 21-years-old and works as a mercenary for the Ruin Mercenary. But her short life has been riddled with tragedy and adventures. Here, you will be able to read snapshots in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea earlier today as I was walking on campus and I swear I saw snowflakes. As I live in Georgia, it's rare that we see snow.
> 
> \---
> 
> Even though I won't be writing the vignettes chronologically, I'm going to arrange the chapters as such. Just a warning, because you may see that there's a new chapter but the last one be one you already read!

Shane held her hand out, feeling the light, cold drop of a snowflake as it alighted upon her palm before immediately melting. She looked up at the sky, her red eyes wide with wonder.

Lenora stopped and turned to look at her friend, confused as to why she had stopped walking. “What’s wrong?”

Shane looked at her, a smile starting to tug at the sides of her mouth. “It’s snow, isn’t it?”

Lenora blinked and the nodded. “Yeah…Have you never seen snow?”

Shane shook her head, her chin length strawberry blonde hair swishing side to side with the movement. “No. In Virana it never snows.”

Lenora smiled. “We’re almost to the north of Nausca now. We’ll probably see a whole foot by the morning.”

“Wow…” Shane gazed up at the sky, admiring the white clouds. She smiled when a snowflake landed on the tip of her nose.

* * *


	2. Age ~18: Socks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'll notice that although this is the _third_ installment to this collection that it's been moved to chapter two. That's because I want to keep the ages in order, even though I won't be writing them in order. I hope that doesn't confuse anyone! x_x;

Shane smiled broadly as she walked through the store, her feet padding softly against the carpet. She looked up at the signs hanging above the multitude of bookshelves: “Philosophy,” “Religion,” “Literature,” “Fiction”…

She stopped and headed into the alcove of books. She scanned the shelves until she found a title that caught her eye: The Dark Queen by a woman named Susan Carroll. She plucked the book from the shelf and sat back on her heels. Cradling the spine lovingly, she opened the book to the first page. She began to read, a tiny happy smile on her face.

In a few moments, Kiyoshi poked his head around the book shelf. When he saw Shane he emerged completely and walked up to her. As he waited for her to notice him he gazed at her face. The little smile and the fact that she wasn’t wearing shoes made her look much like a child. He couldn’t help but smile endearingly at her, but it was slight.

“Shane, what happened to your shoes?” he asked when it seemed she wasn’t going to acknowledge his presence.

She looked up at him, her red eyes round with surprise. She blinked, processing his question, and then looked down at her feet. Instead of red tennis shoes she saw feet clad in a pair of rainbow socks. She wiggled her toes.

“Um…I have no idea.”

* * *


	3. Age ~18: Judge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Judges in Virana are like Parliament or a combination of Congress and the Judiciary branch. They are slightly more powerful than the ruling monarchy, but both must be in agreement for a law or judgement to be passed. Shane's relationship with the late King Edward is a special case.

“Stop!”

Shane hesitated on a white rampart, crouching down and placing a hand against the grainy stone. She gazed down at who had hailed her with eyes the color of the blood she had often spilt. A man clad in the black and deep violet robes of the Viranese Judges gazed up at her, his long black hair pulled neatly back into a ponytail. His black eyes regarded her with an unguarded mistrust and hatred.

Shane lifted one brow as she tried not to smirk. “Jude Alexei. What d’you want?” Something in her demeanor was cautious, but her visage showed nothing but condescending contempt and amusement.

“You think you can just gallivant around here, not even in uniform?” the judge asked, indicating her clothing. He held himself straight with his importance, his voice deep and strong with arrogance.

Shane glanced at her wardrobe: Red plaid, dirty tennis shoes, torn blue jeans, and a simple black camisole that showed off her black tattoos. She looked back at him. “The uniform sucks.”

The Judge closed his eyes as he checked his temper.

Shane smirked and then pursed her lips together in a mocking pout. “What’s the matter, Judge? Havin’ trouble spreadin’ yer power like a bad seed?”

Judge Alexei’s eyes snapped open, his brow creased in anger. Shane knew he had a short fuse, and she loved to light it. “You may have diplomatic immunity, but you are nothing but a petty, disgusting criminal! I will not rest until your corrupting influence is removed from the presence of the princess and Her Majesty!”

Shane stood straight, her hands balled into fists at her side, regarding Judge Alexei with cold hatred, a chilling smirk on her porcelain skin. “Keep tryin’, Alexei, but I’ve somethin’ you lack an’ that you need.”

“And what is that?” asked the Judge as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“ _Favor_.” She said the word slowly, pronouncing it very clearly and strongly. Her fangs had elongated slightly from the thrill of trumping the Head Judge of Virana.

Head Judge Alexei visibly tensed and, with a flick of his deep royal violet cloak, he glided away with as much dignity as he could muster.

This wasn’t over.

* * *


	4. Age ~19: Respect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Though she doesn't seem like it, Shane is actually a pretty religious gal. Though, she doesn't want others to know that!

The goblets clinked together as she walked slowly towards the alter. The small shrine was damp and cold, and vines grew up the marble pillars on the outside. It had been nearly forgotten, but that wasn’t surprising—it was the shrine for the God of Thieves, a god most people forgot about.

Shane couldn’t forget him though. She kneeled at the altar and stood the two gold goblets up. She pressed a finger to her lip, and then lightly dragged that same finger across her mind: The Pantheon’s prayer—the promise to not speak, and to listen.

She bowed her head for a few moments and silently spoke to him.

_My Godfather, Akakios…I bring you these trinkets as a sign of my respect._

Slowly, she lifted her head to gaze into the face of the statue before slowly standing and backing out of the shrine, as was customary. 

Once outside, Shane glanced around to make sure that no one had seen her, and then hurried back to the main path on east towards her home.

* * *


	5. Age ~20: Muslces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane can bench press so much weight because 1) she's been blessed by a God and 2) she's been doing weight exercises for YEARS. I don't advise going out and trying that.
> 
> Ona side note, I can only bench press 50. xD

Shane lifted the bar once more, her teeth clenched and her body shaking from the effort. Her skin shone with sweat, her bangs were plastered to her forehead, and the muscles in her arms were screaming for mercy. She placed the bar back into its place and sat up, wiping her red face with the towel that hung over her shoulder.

Her sister-in-law stood in front of the bench press, her mouth hanging open. “You bench press 340? That’s ridiculous!”

Shane stood up, a self-satisfied smile on her face. She held her hand out to the bench press as if presenting a new item for a customer to consider. “Go on, try it. I’ll take off some of the weight for you.”

Samina looked incredulously at the bench, but eventually lied down. Shane removed the weights from the ends. “The bar itself weights 45, so try that first.”

Samina gripped the bar and inhaled deeply. She was afraid the bar would fall on her and crush her chest.

Shane stood at her head and smiled at her. “I told you I’d help you. I won’t let it fall on you.”

Samina smiled lightly and nodded before lifting the bar. She immediately was thrown off balance and one end of the bar hit the floor, causing Samina to flip off the bench. Shane busted into laughter.

“ _Shane!_ ”

* * *


	6. Age ~21: Spar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've never been very good at describing fighting scenes, but I had this little idea in my head the past couple of days and decided to write it as a vignette, getting some practice in too.
> 
> "Crux" is the nickname Shane gave to Cruz, a pack leader for a small band of werewolves that are normally in Virana not far from the capitol. Celestian werewolves can be described as Spanish.

Shane braced herself and sent a high kick to Cruz’s face. The olive skinned man blocked the kick with his wrist and dove under her leg, attempting to come up behind her. She instantly rolled away, and when she came back up on her feet she immediately turned to face him.

But she no longer faced a man. A great black wolf stood before her, larger than a warhorse. Strips of cloth surrounded him, crushed under massive paws.

“No fair, Crux!” Shane exclaimed, but a grin was spread across her face. Her eyes were shining and her fangs had elongated from the excitement.

A deep sound like laughter came from the throat of the wolf. He reared back and launched himself at Shane, tackling her to the ground.

Shane grit her teeth as she grabbed Cruz by the jowls to hold back his bite. As she held him back she kicked out his back legs to cause him to topple over.

But as she jumped to her feet he lashed out and caught her right calf in his fangs.

She cried out in pain as she fell onto her stomach. She pushed her palms into the dirt and forced herself to flip over, kicking Cruz in the head as she did so.

Cruz rolled away and stood, shaking himself. He changed back to human form, Shane watching as his body seemed to break and reattach as it contorted into a human shape. When the change was complete he pulled a pair of trousers from his pack and pulled them on.

Shane limped up to him and slapped him across the face. “You cheated.”

Cruz shrugged as he gingerly rubbed his cheek, that charming smile of his splitting his face. “You said to not hold back.”

* * *


	7. Age ~21: Writer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I guess because I'm a writer Shane is too. She began as the person I wish I could be and slowly morphed into her own person over the years, but this is one of the things that we continue to have in common. What kind of things does she write? She hasn't yet told me.

Sometimes people find the most unexpected joy in hobbies that others would never attribute to them. Most who looked at Shane would immediately think that she spent her free time looking for a fight, playing violent video games, or sleeping. While all three of those things were also true, there was one hobby that brought her a kind of peace that wasn’t unsettling to her: Writing.

When she found the right inspiration, she could sit for hours on end just writing. She had stacks of spiral-ringed notebooks filled with fragments of ideas, some fleshed out to over twenty thousand words or more, but still only a piece.

At this moment she sat on the shore of Tanak Town. Even though she had moved to the Underground a few months before, she still spend a lot of her time in the little sea side town. It was home in so many ways. Her brother and his wife lived there, this is where she had been raised, this is where Mr. Thomas had trained her and educated her, and this is where she could go to relax. 

She had found a secluded lagoon when she was only seven. A copse of trees separated it from the rest of the town. It had a small field of grass that sloped down to sand before disappearing under the tide. A few large boulders that had fallen from the surrounding cliffs were embedded on the beach, and she sat on the largest. From here she could see far out into the ocean, watch the fishing trolleys that had stayed close to shore that day.

A spiral notebook was open on her lap, her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail to keep it out of her face as she wrote. Her pen flew furiously over the pages and she was bent down so close she was almost a complete ball. The more she got into an idea the closer her face came to the paper, as though she could feel its breath on her cheeks. 

“The unexpected writer.”

Shane jumped, her pen streaking a blue line across the page as she turned to see who had disturbed her. She glowered at the blond man, who smirked up at her.

“Ass,” she said simply. Vael’s appearance had popped her inspiration like a bubble. She couldn’t keep writing if she wanted to.

But the feeling wasn’t gone. It would come again.

* * *


End file.
